Will Northeast MI ever receive 3G?

I've heard talk about how ATT is "working on their network coverage" and plans to provide 3G service in Northeast MI "in the coming months". Well, now that another 2 year contract has expired, I'm seriously wondering if I would be better off jumping to Verizon. The EDGE data network up here if virtually useless. 5 full bars, yet extremely poor data transfer.

Can anyone provide an HONEST answer as to when this coverage is planned to be upgraded??? Verizon has had 3G for quite a long while up here...

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Quite possibly and I am betting that Lathrop will be lit up within 2-3 weeks:):) My source did say that all towers in will be upgraded by the end of November...except for a handful of stragglers. There's already several towers that were very recently upgraded to 3G, that have been tuned up with HSPA+ ( Ironwood, Posen, West Branch, Houghton Lake, and St. Helen) It won't be long now before the dredded "E" makes way for "4G"

If you get a chance, would you see if you can dial into FieldTest mode on your iPhone. Guys are doing this on another thread with their iPhones(on Verizon) to check Frequency Band Indicator and Download/Upload Bandwidth (carrier size in MHz...5/10/20 etc.). This can be done by dialing *3001#12345#* then going to Serving Cell and wait for the list to populate. I don't know if AT&T allows this access but I am curious to see what results you get. I have an Android so I cannot utilize the code.

Thanks for trying that code American Ninja. AT&T must have that network feature blocked. I am in Manistee this week and seen an AT&T truck with guys working on the pole yesterday. I thought all of northern MI was Frontier. Hmmm

c0n.... I would say those towers showing 3G now should light up soon. There have been a lot of anomalies with the coverage viewer lately including the "Voice" coverage map. That is the indicator for tower location but many tower locations aren't depicted properly. Have the cell sites by you been fitted with broadband panels yet? Pretty much all sites are supposed to have HSPA+ activated by years end.

It's probably a safe bet to say they are working on the backhaul to the Lathrop tower:) If the crews have been working on the site, it will be lit up within two weeks at the most. They updated the coverage map and it shows several new towers with UMTS in the U.P. and one thats been upgraded to HSPA+.

Not all service may be active yet, as the map has been showing coverage before it is actually turned on. Real progress has been made which has been a long time coming! 🙂